Dispenser spout for a carton



June 6, 1961 A. A. DE VRIES ETAL 2,987,222

DISPENSER SPOUT FOR A CARTON Filed April so, 1956 IN VEN TORS. ALBERTALLA 20 da MQ/ES ALBERT/ E r92 0% V/Z/ES United States Patent Q 2,987,222 DISPENSER SPOUT FOR A CARTON Albert Allard de Vries and Albert Peter de Vries, both 7 of P.O. Box 3135, Carmel, Calif. Filed Apr. 30, 1956, Ser. No. 581,786 4 Claims. (Cl. 222-81) The present invention relates to a dispenser and in more particular to a dispenser adapted for insertion in the wall of a carton for dispensing measured amounts of granular or powdered material from such carton.

It is desirable to have a dispenser that, at will, can be attached to or removed from cartons such as those containing powder, granule, or flake soap, or flour or sugar. These cartons are generally rectangular and made of a light card that is easily cut. There have been prior devices which may be attached to such cartons to act as dispensing means but none is known that satisfactorily cuts an opening in the carton, seals such opening with the dispenser, and measures out a predetermined amount of the material to be dispensed upon tipping of the package. In the prior art devices, they have not measured the material, they have not sealed the opening, they have torn the carton wall instead of cleanly cutting it, they have not been securely enough fastened to the carton, or they have not been simple and economical of construction.

Having in mind these defects of the prior art devices, it is an object of the present invention to construct a dispenser for cartons containing loose discrete material, a dispensing attachment that may be inserted thru a wall of a carton and attached thereto at the time it is desired to dispense material therefrom.

Further, it is an object of the invention to construct such a dispenser that will deliver predetermined amounts of material.

Another object of the invention is to provide such a dispenser with cutting edges that will make clean cuts and will not slide in making such cuts.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a construction in such a device which will prevent the dribbling of material from the carton.

Still another object is the eflfecting of a tight seal between a carton and such a dispenser when it is inserted through the wall of the carton.

Yet another object is the provision of means for anchoring such a dispenser in the wall of a carton.

The above mentioned defects of the prior art devices are remedied and these objects achieved by the construction of a dispenser, briefly described, in which the lane for perforan'ng a carton wall is in the form of a pointed, or angularly truncated, channel with the truncated edges sharp and serrated, a hopper secured to the base of the lance between the sides of the channel with the top of the hopper open and in the plane of the channel web, and an open sided spout covering a portion of the hopper remote from the lance with the open side of the spout adapted to be closed by the carton wall thru which the lance and the uncovered portion of the hopper are inserted.

In the following description, the device outlined above is described in detail in its construction and operation, and various forms of its construction are shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURES l, 2, 3, and 4 are perspective views of various forms of the invention.

FIGURES 1 and 2 are two views of one form of the invention having a single lance point.

FIGURE 3 is a view of another form of the invention showing a lance with a double point.

FIGURE 4 is a further modification of the invention in which the lance is at an acute angle to the spout.

FIGURE 5 is a side elevational view of the device shown in FIGURE 4, inserted thru the wall of a carton.

FIGURE 6 is a side elevational view of the device shown in FIGURES l and 2, inserted thru the Wall of a carton.

In FIGURES 1 and 2, perspective views, and FIGURE 6, a side view, of a form of the invention having a single pointed lance, the lance is composed of a channel having rectangular, or U-shape, cross section made up of a web 11 and flanges 12, 13. One end of the channel, the outer, or pointed, end is, roughly, truncated and the web is formed with a point 14, that is, the flanges and the web taper to the outer end. The web tapering edges 16, those adjacent the point 14, and the tapering edges 17 of the flanges are serrated. These edges are serrated for three reasons. The first is that a smooth sharp edge does not cut the card board wall of a carton in a clean manner. A smooth edge loads up with fibers and then the card tears, often away from the line in which cutting is desired. Second, the lance tends to slide to one side of the direction in which it is desired to have it go. Third, a smooth sharp edge is more apt to cut the hand of a person operating the .device than is a serrated edge. The serrations have been cut into the edges by means of a serrating file held at an acute angle to the plane of the material forming the edges. This has the effect of forming the serration ends with points and not edges.

All of the devices here shown and described may be made from tin plate of 30 to 26 gage, 00100-00159 inch thickness. The width of the web is a little less than the inside thickness of the standard small carton, about two inches. However, there is nothing critical about this dimension but for use on this size packages, or cartons, it enables the device to readily dispense the last material contained in a carton, as the blade traps all the material from wall to wall in the package and guides it to a hopper which is located at the base of the lance away from the point thereof.

This hopper is formed, the forward, or front, part, by a downward bend and continuations 18, 19 of the web 11 and by direct continuations 20, 21 of the webs 12, 13. The continuations 18, 19 of the web 11 are brought downward to the depth of the flanges 12, 13 and then are continued rearward and then upward to form the rear, or back, side 22 of the hopper, and then further upward to form the bottom 23 of the spout, or chute. The blank from which the dispenser is formed has enough stock at the sides of the upwardly bent straight portion 23 of the spout that these sides may be bent to form the sides 24, 25 of the chute, the back sides 26, 27 of the hopper, and the stop flanges 28, 29 which are parallel to the bottom 23 of the spout and medially of the hopper. The forward side parts 20, 21 of the hopper are joined to the rear side parts 26, 27 of the hopper by solder or by tongues 31 piercing the rear hopper side walls 26, 27 adjacent the stop flanges 28, 29 and bent behind and against such stop flanges. The edges of the front and rear portions 18, 19, 22 may bear against the front 20, 21 and rear 26, 27 sides of the hopper in a close fit or these edges may be secured to the sides by tongues such as those shown at 3-1, or by soldering. The close fit is sufficient for most materials without bonding by tongues or solder.

The desirable heighth of the spout above the open top of the hopper, which in this form of the invention may be considered to be in the plane of the web 11, is such that with material in the hopper and the spout bottom 23 horizontal, the material will not flow out of the spout, being held therein by the angle of repose of the material.

It is to be noted that the bottom edges 32 of the lance webs 12, 13 and the top edges 33 of the forward hopper sides 20, 21 are serrated, parallel, and normal to the stop flanges 28, 29, and the top edges 33 are in the plane of the web 11. Making these edges normal to the stop flanges 28, 29 and serrated insures a clean cut to the corners of the aperture which is cut in the canton wall so that the wall rests fully against the stop flanges and is not deformed inwardly of the carton to encourage leakage of material at these points. Further, if the teeth of the serrations point rearward to the stop flanges, and are chisel edged, points are a line normal to those walls 20, 21, the teeth act to anchor the dispenser in the aperture by gripping the edges of the aperture.

It is also to be noted that the forward Wall 18, 19 of the hopper is formed with a straight wall portion '18 normal to the web 11 and a short inclined portion 19. This short incline 19 is the part that bears against the cut out tab 34 and aids in sealing the aperture against the loss of material around the hopper. 'A small area is better for sealing than a large area as the unit sealing pressure may be made larger more easily.

When the dispenser is held in the hand of a person, and the point 14 is prmsed against the narrowest wall 35 of a carton, the web 11 of the lance enters the carton and by means of the sharp serrated edges 16 of the web cuts a slit along what is to become the upper edge 36 of the tab 34. Further entry of the lance causes the sharp serrated edges 17 of the lance flanges 12, 13 to cut the side edges 37 of the tab. As the lance perforates the carton wall and enters the carton, the tab 34 is pulled into the space between the lance flanges by movement of the lance thru the wall until the tab rests against the forward inclined wall portion 19 of the hopper to eflect a seal therebetween, and to effect a bend 38 at the base of the tab. Insertion of the dispenser is stopped by the stop flanges 28, 29 resting against the outer surface of the wall 35. This, also seals the open side of the spoutto confine material therein. Also, in making the insertion of the dispenser, the parallel serrated edges 32, 33 of the lance flanges, cut the corners of the aperture in a clean manner and firmly anchor the dispenser in the aperture.

In FIGURE 3, there is shown in perspective a modification that differs from the device of FIGURE 1 only in the shape of the web 111. In FIGURE 1 the point 14 of the lance was formed by the central portion of the web 11 being salient, whereas in FIGURE 3, the central portion of the web end is entrant, or bifurcated, so that two points 114, 115 are formed. This construction reduces the needed length of the lance and provides two points for initial entry into and thru the carton wall, which reduces any tendency for side slippage of the lance during insertion. The edges 116 of the entrant angle are serrated and sharpened as are the similar edges of FIGURES 1, 2, and 6. The other parts of the figure are the same as the prior figures and carry the same reference numerals.

In FIGURES 4 and there is shown a modification in which the lance forms an acute angle with the spout. In most other respects the dispenser is the same as that shown in FIGURES l and 2. The lance web 211 has its front end formed with a salient angle terminating in the point 214 having adjacent serrated edges 216. The lance flanges 212, 213 are integral with the sides 226, 227

of the hopper and are secured to the web 211 by light soldering so that the edges of the web are more or less medially disposed of the flanges and the cross section of the lance has an H-form. Both the upper and lower edges 217 of the flanges are serrated, and these edges adjacent the stop flanges 228, 229 and stop ears 230 at the bottom of the hopper, are normal to the back wall 223 of the spout and serrated with chisel shaped teeth 232, 233 to hold the dispenser in the aperture which the lance cuts in a carton wall.

The insertion of this lance thru a carton wall 35 diflers from that of the devices of the other figures in that it requires a sort of rotation of the dispenser counterclockwise, FIGURE 5, as the lance enters the wall. The other 4 l modifications are inserted by a movement normal to the wall.

A study of the various forms of the invention here shown will show that the blanks from which the dispensers are formed have many features in common. All of the blanks are characterized by having a pointed forward, or lance, portion, a middle, or waist, portion that forms part of the hopper, and a winged rearward, or spout, portion that forms the spout and the wings of which form the sides of the hopper. In the devices of FIG- URES 1, 2, 3, and 6, the lance portion has wings which form the lance flanges. The blank for the form of FIG- URE 3 will have two points to the lance portion. The blank of FIGURES 4 and 5 will not have wings attached to the lance portion. This formation of the blanks so that the parts thereof, the lance, hopper, and spout, are mainly rectangular, elongated and symmetrical about an axis longitudinal of the elongation, makes for economy in the manufacture of the devices.

Having thus described and shown the construction and operation of various devices embodying our invention, we claim:

1. A dispenser adapted to be incorporated into a carton ton by insertion thru a Wall thereof, having: a lance formed with planar portions, one of said portions being a point portion having a point and a serrated edge contiguous with said point, and parallel margins another of said portions being secured to each of said margins and angularly disposed with respect to the plane of said point portion and having a serrated cutting edge which is continuous of the cutting edge of said point portion, a hopper secured to said lance away from said point, said hopper having sides coplanar with said marginal portions and extending between and in contact with all of said portions, and stop means secured to and medially of said hopper for limiting insertion of said lance and hopper thru such wall.

2. A dispenser adapted to be incorporated into a carton by insertion thru a wall thereof, having: a lance formed with planar portions, one of said portions being a point portion having a point and a serrated edge, other of said portions being marginal portions marginal of said point portion and angularly disposed with respect to the plane of said point portion and having serrated cutting edges, one of which is continuous with the cutting edge of said point portion, a hopper secured to said lance away from said point, said hopper having sides coplanar with said marginal portions and extending between and in contact with all of said portions, and stop means secured to said hopper medially thereof for limiting insertion of said lance and hopper thru such wall.

3. A blank for forming a dispenser having parts adapted for insertion thru a carton wall, comprising: a web part for forming therewith a lance having a point; away from such point and joined to said web as a continuation thereof, a waist part for forming therefrom the forward and rearward portions of a hopper; away from said web and waist part a winged portion having a chute bottom part as a continuation of said waist part, and a wing on each side of said chute bottom part, which wings may form the sides of said chute and hopper; and said waist part being narrower than the widest part of either said web part or said winged portion.

4. The combination of claim 3 which includes on each side of said web part a wing which may be bent at an angle to said web to form therewith 'a channel as part of the lance for such dispenser.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,107,654 Vail Feb. 8, 1938 2,318,899 Stilwell May 11, 1943 2,523,426 Gray Sept. 26, 1950 2,609,967 Persons Sept. 9, 1952 2,747,771 Mercer May 29, 1956 

